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SEND Local Offer / Information Report

This should be looked at together with:1) The London Borough of Bexley Local Offer for children and young people with SEND, which can be accessed here.2) The school Inclusion Policy, which includes pupil premium children, and can be accessed here. 3) The school PSHE Policy which can be accessed here. 4) The school anti bullying policy, which can be accessed here. 5) The school accessibility plan, which can be accessed here.

Children in school will get support that is specific to their individual needs. This may be all provided by the class teacher or may involve:• Other staff in the school• Staff who will visit the school from the Local Authority central services such as the ASD Advisory Service Team or Sensory Service ( for students with a hearing or visualneed)• Staff who visit from outside agencies such as the Speech and Language therapy (SALT) Service and Physiotherapy.

The teacher will have the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.

All teaching is based on building on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.

Putting in place different ways of teaching so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things like using more practical learning or providing different resources adapted for your child.

Putting in place specific strategies (which may be suggested by the Inclusion Team or outside agencies) to enable your child to access the learning task.

Intervention Group

This type of specific, small group support is available for any child who has specific gaps in their understanding of a subject/area of learning. This group may be

Run in the classroom or outside.

Run by a teacher or (most often) a Teaching Assistant who has had training to run these groups.

The school may suggest that your child needs some agreed individual support or group support in school. They will tell you how the support will be used and what strategies will be put in place.

Specified Individual support for your child ‘s EHCP

All pupils at Woodside School have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or if your child has had this type of support for some time, may be provided by a Statement of Special Educational Needs. This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are:

Severe, complex and lifelong

Have Woodside School identified on their EHCP as their place of education

For parents wishing to consider Woodside as their preferred place of education for their child, the pupil must be in receipt of an EHCP or Statement. If this is not the case, an EHCP must be granted by the Local Authority. An EHCP is provided via an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This means your child will have been identified by their school as needing a particularly high level of individual and small group teaching (as a guide, 21 hours or more, in school), which cannot be provided from the resources already delegated to the school.

Usually, if your child requires this high level of support they may also need specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This may be from:

Local Authority central services such as the ASD Outreach Team or Sensory Service ( for students with a hearing or visual need)

Outside agencies such as the Speech and Language therapy (SALT) Service, Occupational therapy service, Physiotherapy and/or CAMHS This would mean:

The school (or you) can request that the Local Authority carry out a statutory assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process and you can find more details about this in the Local Authority (LA) based Local Offer, on the Bexley website: www.bexley.gov.uk

Your child’s school will have been putting together a profile of your child’s aspirations and needs over time, and you will have been involved in Team around the Family (TAC) meetings as part of this process. The school will then meet with you and other professionals involved, and decide if it would be helpful to apply for a statutory assessment, and agree any additional information and evidence that should be included from you, other involved professional and them.

The school may provide an assessment place in Russell House to support the process of information gathering and to better meet your child’s needs during the assessment period.

After the school have sent in the request to the Local Authority (with a lot of information about your child, including some from you), they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), seem complex enough to need a statutory assessment. If this is the case they will look at the advice submitted and ask you and any other professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs, if this is not already included, or information is missing. If they do not think your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the support at School SEN Support.

After the reports have all been sent in, the Local Authority will decide if your child’s needs are severe, complex and lifelong as a guide, they need 21 hours of support, or more, in school to make good progress. If this is the case they will write an EHC plan. If this is not the case, they will ask the school to continue with the support at SEN Support and also set up a meeting in their school to ensure a plan is in place to ensure your child makes as much progress as possible.

The EHC Plan or Statement (if your child still has one) will outline how the support should be used and what strategies must be put in place. It will also have long and short term goals for your child.

An additional adult may be used to support your child with whole class learning, run individual programmes or run small groups including your child.

An alternative specialist setting such as Woodside School may be identified on the EHCP.

We will first invite you to visit the school with your child to have a look around and speak to staff

If other professionals are involved, a team around the Child (TAC) meeting will be held to discuss your child’s needs, share strategies used, and ensure provision is put in place before your child starts

The SENCo may make a home visit and also visit your child if they are attending another provision We may suggest adaptations to the settling in period to help your child to settle more easily

An agreed transition period will be set up with their existing school to ensure there is an effective strategy in place to support transition into Woodside.

When a teacher or a parent has raised concerns about your child’s progress, and targeted teaching has not met the child’s needs, the teacher will raise this with the Phase Leader and SENCo.

There are meetings every term between each class teacher and a senior staff member in the school to ensure all children are making good progress. This is another way your child may be identified as not making as much progress as expected.

If your child is then identified as not making progress the school will make a decision about whether to monitor this or set up an intervention group and will inform you.

If your child is still not making expected progress the school will discuss with you:

Any concerns you may have

Discuss with you any further interventions or referrals to outside professionals to support your child’s learning

To discuss how we could work together, to support your child at home/school.

C: Provided and paid for by the Health Service (Oxleas NHS Trust) but delivered in school:

The SENCo’s jobs is to support the class teacher in planning for children with SEND.

The school has a school development plan, including identified training needs for all staff to improve the teaching and learning of children including those with SEND. This may include whole school training on SEND issues or to support identified groups of learners in school, such as ASD, dyslexia etc.

Whole staff training to disseminate knowledge, strategies and experience, to ensure consistency of the school’s approach for children with an SEND.

Individual teachers and support staff attend training courses run by outside agencies that are relevant to the needs of specific children in their class e.g. from the ASD Advisory Service and Sensory Service or medical /health training to support staff in implementing care plans.

Training takes place on a regular basis. If you would like to hear about the training which is currently taking place or has taken place by the staff members in the school, please speak to the Head of Inclusion.

Class Teachers plan lessons according to the specific needs of all groups of children in their class, and will ensure and will ensure that learning tasks are adjusted in order to enable your child to access their learning as independently as possible.

Specially trained support staff can implement the teacher’s modified/adapted planning to support the needs of your child where necessary.

Specific resources and strategies will be used to support your child individually and in groups.

Planning and teaching will be adapted on a daily basis if needed to meet your child’s learning needs and increase your child’s access to what is on offer.

His/her progress is reviewed formally every term. Attainment in reading, writing, maths and phonics and communication is assessed and reported against age-related expectations or P-Levels. Progress in other curriculum areas is discussed, as are attendance and behaviour.

At the end of each key stage (i.e. at the end of year 2 and year 6) all children are required to be formally assessed using Standard Assessment Tests (SATS) if they are not working below the level of the test. This is something the government requires all schools to do and are the results that are published nationally.)

The progress of children with an EHC Plan/ Statement of SEN is formally reviewed at an Annual Review with all adults involved with the child’s education.

The SENCo will also check that your child is making good progress within any individual work and in any group that they take part in.

We consult with the virtual school – Head Teacher and SENCo as appropriate for personalised support as required. We also liaise with the allocated social worker, to ensure all agencies are working collaboratively to develop an appropriate support package (PEP/EHCP/Statement) for each child.

We review the child’s needs and progress regularly, for example before entering the school to ensure a smooth transition from their previous setting and then at regular intervals.

We ensure Pupil Premium Plus is being used to effectively enable the child to meet their outcomes.

The SENCo ensures that training and policies are supportive of looked after children with SEND

The Designated Governor for LAC works to ensure provision is enabling LAC with SEND to make good progress.

The class teacher is regularly available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school so similar strategies can be used.

The SENCo and Phase Leader are available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.

All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you with the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a report.

IEPs will be reviewed with your involvement each term.

Homework will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual needs.

A home/school contact book may be used to support communication with you, when this has been agreed to be useful for you and your child.

We recognise that ‘moving on’ can be difficult for a child with SEN/and or disabilities and take steps to ensure that any transition is a smooth as possible.

If your child is moving to another school:

We will contact the new school’s SENCO and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child.

We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.

When moving classes in school:

Information will be passed on to the new class teacher in advance and in most cases, a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher. All IEP (PLP’s) will be shared with the new teacher.

If your child would be helped by a transition book to support them understand moving on then it will be made for them.

In Year 6:

The Head of Inclusion will attend Primary Transition Days organised by LAs to discuss the specific needs of your child with the SENCO of a secondary school if your child is moving into mainstream, and the specialist session for students with an SEND, as appropriate.

Your child will do focused learning about aspects of transition to support their understanding of the changes ahead with the school’s Behaviour Mentor.

Where possible your child will visit their new school on several occasions and in some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school.